Saboten Con is an anime and Japanese culture convention. The convention features a wide range of fun panels and events such as a vendor’s room filled with tons of merchandise for any otaku, gaming tournaments, anime screening, cosplay panels, and even cafes. This year Saboten Con was also happy to announce that they are holding the Southwest Qualifiers for the 2015 circuit of the World Cosplay Summit (WCS). The Saboten Con is being held in Glendale, Arizona at the Glendale Renaissance. The con will have guests such as voice actor Ian Sinclair, cosplayer Electric Lady, and even live performances by songstress Iruma Rioka. The Saboten Con is set for Labor day weekend, August 29 – September 1, which leaves you with four days of otaku fun.

We have been going to the Saboten Con from the very first one in 2008. Over the years the Saboten Con is the largest anime convention in Arizona with attendance reaching 4,002 for the 2013 event. As a proud supporter of cons, cosplay, and anything otaku we’re excited to take photos of amazing costumes and panels; as well as share news from the convention. So, make sure to check back again for coverage of this awesome Arizona anime con.

Today, we’re featuring an adorable Shiina Mayuri cosplay from the ever so popular Steins;Gate! We enjoy the detail the cosplayer put into her Shiina Mayuri cosplay, such as remembering to add in the little pink ruffle on her dress. Even her poses are totally cute! We’d have to say our favorite part is the bucket hat which completes this entire costume.We wonder how her work at May Queen Nyan-Nyan is going?

Steins;Gate takes place in 2010 during summer and features time and space travel as its main theme. The concept of cause and effect is featured prominently in the series as the protagonist, Rintarō Okabe, travels back in time, numerous times, to perform different actions in an attempt to change what has happened in the future. Mayuri Shiina is the protagonist’s childhood friend, whom enjoys cosplay and works at a maid cafe. (aww!)Steins;Gate started back in 2009 as a visual novel game for the Xbox 360. It was developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus, and was part of their science adventure game series. The prequel to Steins;Gate is Chaos;Head and its successor is Robotic;Notes. Later, Steins;Gate also has received an anime and manga series, as well as another video game.

Last Weekend, May 23-26, was the south-west pop-culture event Phoenix Comicon 2013. We were there with our cameras ready to take on the crowds of cosplayers at the convention. Unfortunately, there were so many amazing cosplayers that we couldn’t snap shots of all of them. Here are the cool cosplay photos we took from Phoenix Comicon 2013!..

This adorable Neon Genesis Evangelion Rei Ayanami cosplay is done by Namada Cosplayer. Although, we found these photos of her cosplay onNamadacos.blogspot.com. Namada did an amazing job with this cosplay and she posed just right, too. she definitely makes a cute Rei Ayanami, from her wig and accessories to the suit and finer details.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Japanese media franchise created and owned by Gainax, a Japanese animation studio. Most of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise features an apocalyptic mecha story bursting with action, which revolves around the efforts by the paramilitary organization NERV to fight hostile beings called Angels, using giant humanoids called Evangelions that are piloted by select teenagers. Other works deviate from this theme to varying degrees, focusing more on romantic interactions between characters, side stories which did not appear in the original canon Neon Genesis Evangelion, and/or reimaginings of the conflicts from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion works.

We found this cool FLCL cosplay pair on Tumblr. The Canticosplayer is ZacCloudSeth, while the Harukocosplayer is Berndor on Tumblr, also known as Chinasauron DeviantArt. (We’ve actually written about one of her cosplays previously.) These two costumes are well done. The Canti costume is amazing and has a pretty good paint job. While the Haruko is also pretty rad, too. We also like how detailed Canti’s helmet is. We think ZacCloudSeth and Berndor gave the characters of FLCL justice.

FLCL (Fooly Cooly) is an original video animation, OVA, series written by Yōji Enokido, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G, and StarchildRecords. FLCL lasted 6 episodes and later a manga which interpreted the original OVA.